Big Heart, Big Family Quilt

Firstly if you have popped over from the New Quilter's Blog Hop, Hello. My introductory blog is here. Check out The Quilter's Blog Hop week two giveaways. Two blog posts in 3 days, I am doing well!

 The name of this quilt has evolved over the last few weeks, taken nearly as long to name as to make. I have finally settled on The  Big Heart, Big Family Quilt. The Big Heart, Big Family Quilt came about as a present for one of my cousins, Miss Dee, D for Delightful. She is actually Mrs Dee, but that doesn't sound as stylish and she is certainly stylish.

the type of washing I don't mind

First to explain. I have a big family, my grandparents had 11 children, they all married and mostly had family. That made 22 aunts and uncles. They in turn had 32 children, including me. That makes 31 cousins. My 31 cousins, mostly married or have partners and have children. I counted the other night 54 that I know of. It doesn't mean there are hidden relatives, just that some live abroad and  I am not exactly sure how many children they all have!

Granda's seat, constructed by my sons (from a kit!)

Other children counted sheep to get to sleep, I counted cousins, and aunts and uncles. Honestly.

 We have a brilliant family photo of most of us at our grandparents' golden wedding party. I would love to share it, but ... the odds of a relative objecting to appearing on the net is too high with so many of us! Mind you, who would ever know?

Anyhow, we genuinely all get on but of course, there are always some you are fonder of than others. Only human, that. And Miss Dee I am particularly fond of. I meet her occasionally for coffee. My sister laughed and said we were the odd couple. Why? I asked. Most offended. Then she said think about it.

my cousin is tall
I am short
my cousin is slim
I am not
my cousin is an athlete
I am not
my cousin represented our wee country at international level in her sport
I have not nor never will
my cousin's children are still at the young cute stage
mine aren't

Apart from that, we get on. And, when she had a couple of health scares last year and then reached a milestone birthday and celebrated her good health,  I wanted to celebrate it with her.  And what better way than with a quilt.

granda's summerhouse, or hut

For those of you that are still with me, the quilt is made from two charm packs of Kaffe Fassett fabric. I used 64 x 5" charms and loads of white kona squares. Too many to count. I was originally doing one white row around, but it needed more to balance out. The quilt ended up about 65" or so in each direction. Big enough for Miss Dee and her deeelightful daughter to snuggle under on a cold day or lie on in the garden. There was no real plan, the squares are totally random to the point some similar ones are together. That's ok. It's a random quilt.

planning the no plan

I used the good old faithful numbers by Ikea to back it. I added some pink dotty Rose and Hubble and some other pink circles from the Village Haberdashery in London, can't remember the fabric's name. Some of the pink dotty was used for binding. The quilting was kept simple. One row of white down each side of the seams, and three rows of pink down the centre of each square, about 1/4 apart. The thread was just standard coats thread. The batting is called Heritage and that seems rather appropriate.

my rather attractive backside 

I am really, really happy with this quilt. I will be sorry to part with it, but I know Miss Dee will, as she said "cherish" it. I hope it also gets damp on the grass and crisps spilled over it too! It's also a rare quilt that my husband complemented me on! I may be making another one. In fact I have a charm pack by Moda, "Ambleside" but it has only 40 squares. Ambleside in the Lake District is one of my favourite places.  Do I need to do more shopping?

love the dotty binding 

not, raining, just watered the lavender

Helen
ps the photos were taken at my dad's. Isn't his garden looking well? That is a wine bottle in the tub, apparently it stops cats from pooping in the tubs!